Female board members, it's not a new concept. Despite advice from the ASX and regardless of the increase in revenue and innovation, today only 27% of the ASX 200 employ female board members. There are more CEOs named Peter than there are female CEOs altogether.
Scattered throughout the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations is advice on how to implement diversity, not just gender diversity but also cultural. The recommendations explain that increased gender diversity is associated with better financial performance and can broaden the pool for recruitment of high quality employees, increase employee retention, and even foster a closer connection and better understanding of customers.
If you need a policy to implement diversity, our main advice is to be specific. Using general terms or unmeasurable goals won't cut it. If you're serious about this, you need to set some fixed benchmarks for success and not leave wriggleroom for pretending it's all too hard.
Considering women are graduating at the same rate as men, we all know there are plenty of qualified women to choose from. If for some strange reason, putting a woman on the board isn't on the cards, at the very least start hiring female CEO's, CFO's and COO's and just watch the development.
Sorry Peter, it's not that you weren't doing a good job but diversity makes for a healthier company. Call it affirmative action if you like, or just adopt our approach: hire more women!
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